Paul Ngei

12:02AM BST 27 Aug 2004

Paul Ngei, who has died aged 81, became one of the more colourful early members of the Kenyan government on the strength of his imprisonment with Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, under colonial rule.

Ngei served seven years' hard labour at Kapenguria jail, in north-west Kenya, for being a manager of the terrorist organisation Mau Mau. This mysterious movement was rooted in the blood-oath ceremonies of the Kikuyu people, whose fighters used spears and axes to terrorise farmers, farmsteads and blacks deemed to be collaborators.

Only 95 whites were killed, while 14,000 Africans and Asians died during the uprising. It was subdued by the deployment of British troops, although modern Kenyan history holds that the rebellion was the national freedom struggle which led to the country's independence in 1963.

Kenyatta, Ngei and other members of the "Kapenguria Six" were a diverse group of political hopefuls who had little to do with the fighting in the Aberdare forests, as they were serving their prison terms; they had been rounded up by the colonial authorities as the usual suspects when the first signs of black unrest manifested themselves. All, however, were to be hailed as heroes of the revolution when independence was finally granted.

Ngei, in particular, was to prove himself a supreme political opportunist, often boasting in his later life that he had "at least nine lives". He needed them all in the vicious labyrinth of Kenya's post-colonial tribal politics. As a member of the small Kamba tribe, he made several powerful enemies among the ruling Kikuyu elite. But he always survived the many attempts to discredit him because of the close bonds he had forged with Kenyatta.

The youngest of the Kapenguria Six, Ngei was said to have kitted himself out with the same kind of leather jacket, fly whisk and walking stick as Kenyatta, whose life he claimed to have saved by preventing a fellow detainee from grabbing him by the neck and throwing him into a fire. He and Kenyatta had a falling out before independence, when Ngei threatened to lead Kamba out of the nationalist coalition. But after the failure of his party to make an impact, he joined the delegation to the independence talks in London.

A stocky, powerful figure with a rasping voice that was filled with menace yet rarely sounded angry, Ngei was never averse from using his fists on journalists and political opponents, or on rivals in his always complicated love life. He was fined by a Nairobi magistrate for pulling a gun on a Kenyan businessman and threatening to shoot him.

Ngei was suspended from the government in 1966 amid allegations that he had been involved in smuggling maize, causing a shortage of the staple food in Kenya. Kenyatta instituted a commission of inquiry which eventually - under pressure from the president's office - found there was no case to answer.

He was an enthusiastic member of what Kenyans came to call the "WaBenzi" tribe - powerful and influential members of the new ruling class who were identified by the large Mercedes-Benz limousines they drove. Ngei acquired his Mercedes in 1971, telling the dealers to send the bill to the government.

The Treasury refused to pay, insisting that the minister had acquired it for his personal use; and the dealers, aware of their customer's status, wrote off the deal to experience, leaving Ngei to use the car for another 20 years. It became known to Nairobi wags as "the longest test drive in history". He frequently used the same ploy in Nairobi's hotels and restaurants, telling the waiters to "send the bill to the government", knowing it would never be paid, but confident that no-one would lay a complaint against him.

Ngei's capacity for political survival was never better illustrated than during the tense period after the death of Kenyatta in 1978. Ngei actively and openly led a movement to prevent Daniel Arap Moi from succeeding as president. He failed, but swiftly set about mending fences with Kenya's new leader - and so smoothly that Moi appointed him to his new cabinet.

He was finally forced to resign his cabinet post and his parliamentary seat in 1991 after being declared bankrupt by the Kenyan High Court. Numerous business ventures failed, and the trappings of power disappeared. His health began to fail and eventually he had to have both legs amputated following complications caused by chronic diabetes. He spent his last years wheelchair-bound and in penury.

Paul Joseph Ngei was born in 1923 at Kangundo in the Machakos district, a grandson of Paramount Chief Masaku. A bright, ambitious youngster, he attended the prestigious Alliance High School in Kikuyu and went on to Makere University in neighbouring Uganda. He initially opted for a military career, joining the King's African Rifles, but found that his rebellious nature was not compatible with Army discipline. Having studied drama at Makere , he tried his hand at acting, gaining a small part in the feature film, Where No Vultures Fly (1951), which starred Anthony Steel and Dinah Sheridan.

He moved to journalism, joining the East African Standard before starting his own Swahili-language newspaper. This was the era of political awakening in Africa, and Ngei found himself drawn into politics. He joined the executive of the Kenyan African National Union (Kanu), which was to become the ruling party; his involvement led to his arrest at the outbreak of the Mau Mau insurgency.

On his release, Ngei briefly fell out with the Kanu leadership and formed his own party, the African Peoples' Party (APP). This, too, was short-lived; it disbanded when he was persuaded to re-join Kanu as it came to power under Kenyatta. Ngei's first government job was as chairman of the Maize Marketing Board and within a year, he was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Co-operatives and Marketing.

His carefully cultivated friendship with Kenyatta not only enabled him to survive attempts by political rivals to unseat him but also the numerous personal and financial scandals that were to dog him for his 27 years in parliament.

Like many others in the governments of Kenyatta - and, later, Moi - Ngei had taken full advantage of his position to enrich himself. He acquired a mansion on a five-acre plot in Nairobi, a 3,000-acre ranch at Oldonyo-Sabuk and a beach house at Malindi on the Indian Ocean coast. He owned more than 1,000 head of cattle and 2,500 goats, and regularly flew to London to add to a large collection of Savile Row suits.

But his profligacy eventually forced him to quit politics as an undischarged bankrupt. Despite being poverty-stricken and confined to his wheelchair, he was still able to boast of having three lovers, telling his dwindling band of admirers: "You don't need legs to have a mistress."

Ngei had four wives - three of whom were at his bedside when he died on August 15 - and at least nine children.